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Monday, January 13, 2014

The start of the Winter quarter at the college was now a full week ago, but I've been busy enough that I hadn't yet gotten an opportunity to show off my "first day of school" pants until now (and now only because I'm procrastinating on some grading!).

The fabric is another one of the wools I bought on a great sale a while back at Eddie's. The subtle plaid just screamed pants to me, and while I really, really wanted to use my new Sewaholic Thurlow Trousers pattern, I knew it meant time fiddling with the fit, and time is something I do not have at the moment. So, I went with a pattern I've used several times before.

I've made this pattern four times now (most notably here), and each time I've used a less and less forgiving (read: stretchy) fabric. This time, I lined the pants and it became even more obvious that I need to either find a new pattern or make some significant fit changes. Basically, the back rise just isn't quite long enough for my ample bottom. It doesn't look bad, but they just don't fit perfectly. I just need to bite the bullet and make time to get the perfectly fitting trouser (you know, or take a pattern making course and design them from scratch).

The original pattern doesn't specify any sort of back pockets, so I always put in my own welt pockets to break up the expanse of fabric. I worked hard to match up the plaids on the welts, so they blended in a bit better.

The plaid is well matched everywhere except the trim part of the pocket on one side. I'll show it to you, just so I can confess that I did not go back and fix it. Sorry guys.

I lined the pants with some Bemberg, but didn't take photos at the time (and probably won't get around to it), so just trust me on that one. Since the pattern didn't include a lining, and I decided to add it after the pants were almost fully constructed, it didn't go in as gracefully as I would have liked, but it works!

My only goal for this year is to make one garment for myself each month. I know it's a low bar, but I want to be realistic and not feel like a huge failure when I'm over-extended in other areas of my life (and I might even feel good about myself if I surpass expectations!). Hurray for reasonable goals!